Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday presented the 2025 Simon Bolívar National Journalism Award to Iranian news anchor Sahar Emami.
In footage widely shared on social media during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, Emami was seen broadcasting live from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting news studio in Tehran, when the IRIB building was struck by the Israeli Air Force on June 16.
The blast abruptly cut off her remarks as smoke, dust and papers were seen flying in the background. Emami, covered in a black hijab, got up from her chair and in apparent shock walked out from the scene.
Tehran’s Press TV quoted Maduro heaping praise on Emami. He commended her “courage” and the Iranian people for “heroically resisting” its enemies.
He condemned Israel and the United States for conducting attacks in Iran.
Iran’s Ambassador to Venezuela Ali Chegini accepted the journalism award on behalf of Emami.
In confirming Israel’s attack on the IRIB building at the time, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “The Iranian regime’s propagandist and inciting broadcasting authority was attacked by the IDF following the wide-scale evacuation of nearby residents.”
“We will strike the Iranian dictator wherever he may be,” he added.
According to the IDF, the strike targeted a “communication center that was being used for military purposes by the Iranian Armed Forces.”
The building was used by the regime “under the guise of civilian activity, covering up the military use of the center’s infrastructure and assets,” it said.
The IDF noted that it provided advanced warning to the civilian population in the area of the strike.
In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department placed sanctions on the IRIB organization for forcing confessions from Iranians detained by the Islamic Republic.
The department sanctioned IRIB and six individuals associated with it, for its involvement in the Iranian government’s censorship activities.
The organization, which holds a monopoly over television and radio broadcasts in Iran, has aired hundreds of forced confessions from Iranian citizens, dual nationals, and foreign detainees, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
This includes recent televised interviews in which individuals were coerced into denying that their relatives were killed by Iranian authorities during nationwide protests, instead attributing the deaths to unrelated or accidental causes.